Sheltered by land and sea, Sfakia was a unique natural stronghold. Inhabitants of the area were subject to paying taxes, with all but a handful of exceptions, and there are records of the temporary presence of the Ottoman authorities in the area from time to time. Nevertheless, the locals did maintain a kind of self-government, bore arms and were battle-hardened. What is more, thanks to their fleet and commercial activity, the Sfakiots were in a position to know what was going on outside Crete, a fact inextricably bound up with both the 1770 uprising and their hand in the 1821 Revolution.